Explained: Fighting Nemom, BJP’s ‘Gujarat In Kerala’

The CPM, Congress and BJP have all handled applicants who are upper-station Hindu Nairs. The Congress trusts that votes of the local area, aside from the sponsorship of Muslims and Nadars, will own Muraleedharan.

It is quite possibly the most-watched voting public in Kerala, being the one in particular where the BJP won the last time, in the 2016 Assembly decisions. With both the LDF and UDF resolved to show that they would give the BJP extreme rivalry, the Congress has handled its previous state president and sitting MP K Muraleedharan from the seat, while the CPM has set up V Sivankutty, who won from Nemom in 2011. The BJP, which has pronounced that Nemom is its Gujarat in Kerala, is going with previous Mizoram lead representative and senior pioneer Kummanam Rajasekharan, who had challenged the 2019 Lok Sabha races from here.

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The constituency

Nemom is arranged in Thiruvananthapuram area, with a bit of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation falling inside the voting demographic. In the Assembly appointment of 2016, senior BJP pioneer O Rajagopal had made history by turning into the principal party contender to win a seat in the state.

In the 2016 races, Rajagopal sacked 47.46% of the surveyed votes, with his closest adversary, V Sivankutty of the CPM, getting 41.39%. The Congress had left the seat for its UDF minor partner Janata Dal (U). The JD(U’s) V Surendran Pillai got just 9.7% votes.

The 2019 Lok Sabha decisions showed the BJP’s exhibition of three years prior was not an accident. While Congress pioneer Shashi Tharoor won from Thiruvananthapuram, in the Nemom Assembly section falling under the voting public, the BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan had a lead of 12,041 votes over Tharoor. Rajasekharan got 58,513 votes, while Tharoor had 46,472. The LDF got just 33,921 votes.

In the new urban body races also, of the 23 divisions of Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation falling under the Nemom supporters, the BJP won 14. The LDF took the excess nine.

Shift away from Congress

In the 2001 and 2006 Assembly surveys, senior Congress pioneer N Sakthan had won from the Nemom Assembly voting demographic before a delimitation work out. In 2001, the BJP got 16,872 votes here, and in 2006, a simple 6,705 votes.

In 2011, CPM applicant V Sivankutty got 42.99% of the votes, overcoming Rajagopal whose offer was 37.49%. The UDF’s up-and-comer at that point, the Socialist Janata (Democratic) Party’s Charupara Ravi, got just 17.38% of the surveyed votes. At that point came the 2016 Assembly surveys, when the UDF vote share fell further to 9.7%, while the CPM pretty much held its votes.

This shows that the BJP has been filling in this electorate mostly at the expense of the Congress.